“Governor Hottie” Gets Blown Off By Bushco

This Newsweek story tells us that John W. McBush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden were called by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Our Gal Condi Rice for an Iraq troop briefing this week…

The calls this week were part of the Bush administration’s campaign to line up political support for a compromise deal with Iraq that cedes some authority over U.S. forces, and a courtesy to the presidential hopefuls on whose watch the deal would take effect.

“We are keeping them informed about activities and remember, certainly, they have committee assignments and things like that as senators as well,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said Friday. “One of them is going to win the election, and they will be taking over and having to deal with these issues … So it’s only prudent for us to make sure that we get them the information that we think they need.”

As to why the “Alaska Disasta” wasn’t included…

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters: “If you hadn’t noticed, she’s a governor, not a senator or congressman.”

Well, this prompted me to go searching, and I found the following headline from this New York Times story dated 40 years ago (subscription only)…

JOHNSON TO BRIEF NIXON AND AGNEW ON TALKS IN PARIS; Republican Nominees to Fly to Ranch Today — Will See Rusk, Vance and Helms TRIP TO SOVIET IS OFF Presidential Candidate Will Visit Party Chiefs in States That Opposed His Bid Politics: Johnson to Brief Nixon and Agnew Today on the Talks in Paris on Vietnam CANDIDATE’S TRIP TO SOVIET IS OFF Presidential Nominee Plans to Visit Party’s Leaders in States That Opposed Him

By WARREN WEAVER Jr.Special to The New York Times
August 10, 1968, Saturday
Page 1, 1015 words

And the story tells us the following…

The Republican nominee for President was invited by President Johnson to take Gov. Spiro T. Agnew with him to the L.B.J. Ranch for a meeting with Secretary of State Dean Rusk; Cyrus R. Vance, one of the negotiators in Paris, and Richard C. Helms, Director of Central Intelligence.

And just for the record, Agnew was the governor of Maryland at the time.

Hey, I don’t like Palin either, but fair is fair, right? And it serves McCormack right for being a typical Bushco smartass.